


golden one

by kurgaya



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Drabble, Duelist Kingdom, Gen, although no daemons actually feature in this lol, think of it as a prologue, to something i'll probably never write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 13:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15414297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurgaya/pseuds/kurgaya
Summary: Yūgi passes through another doorway, following the hall in no particular direction. Candlelight dances around him, and for a moment, he is sure a shadow moves. Not as shadows do, but like an animal in the night, a predator wearing the dark like a draping, black cloak. Yūgi turns back to watch the doorway, inhaling a sharp breath. The fires jolt at the sound, but nothing appears.[Post Duelist Kingdom. Yūgi wanders into the Millennium Puzzle for the first time.]





	golden one

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hausos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hausos/gifts).



> This _was_ going to be the beginning of a larger universe I was planning on writing, but... I've lost my muse ^^; But I liked this too much not to post it, so here you go!!
> 
> Kid me would be so, sooooo proud right now. Way before I even knew what fanfiction was, I was already writing it for yugioh :)

 

As far as dreams go, Yūgi decides, this has to be one of the weirdest. A labyrinth of doors within a maze of corridors opens up around him, each path leading either nowhere or everywhere, dark and empty rooms leading into dark and empty halls. The walls are ancient stone, climbing high out of sight to an unreachable ceiling. Faint markings cover the stone, but if they were once words, then they are too faded to read. There are no lights or windows, and yet the rooms flicker with candlelight, dancing with the shadows of the walls. But the only breeze to sway the flames is Yūgi’s breath, the soft pant of it as he wanders the thousand staircases that spiral up and down and beyond all thought and view.

He doesn't know where he's going - if there's anywhere to go. Time is still here, measured only by the beat of his heart like a drum in his ears. If Yang were here, then maybe everything would be all right. Yugi’s never been anywhere without her before, not even his dreams. He can feel the bond between them - one small mercy - and knows instinctively that she is safe and well. But he has never been without her trotting along in his shadow, and her absence is a presence in itself, a void of light where there once was dark. To be without a daemon is to die. Yūgi clutches his arms as he wanders the corridors and hopes this dream will be more merciful than that. He cannot help but call for Yang. She doesn't answer and he doesn't expect her to, but Yūgi clings to his daemon's name like the fraying threads of his sanity as the stairs lead on and on and on.

Like Yang, the Millennium Puzzle has the weight of absence around his neck. Granted, he has been with Yang far longer than the Puzzle, but Yūgi has grown accustomed to its clunky edges and jagged shine. It is, in every way, his most prized possession. He keeps grasping for the chain for reassurance, only to find his fingers catching air. The pointed tips of the pyramid have left many nicks and bruises, but Yūgi cannot feel them now. He feels almost weightless, in fact, incorporeal and light. The shadows muffle his steps as he walks the halls. This odd, discarnate sensation can only be a result of the dream, and yet, something about it is familiar to Yūgi, from a time when his soul has been unembodied before.

He thinks of his duel with Pegasus - _their_ duel with Pegasus - and remembers watching his body move from afar. Barely a day has passed since the final, but already Yūgi wishes for time to talk with the Spirit of the Puzzle. After defeating Pegasus, releasing everybody’s souls, encountering Shadi, claiming the prize money for Joey’s sister, and finally, _finally_ , securing a ship to return them from Duellist Kingdom, there has hardly been the time. Yūgi knows he should have said something to the Spirit after dinner, but he had been so tired that he crawled straight into bed.

He resolves to say something in the morning. The Spirit of the Puzzle may be a mystery, but he’s a friend now, too. Yūgi wants to know anything and everything about him and the Millenium item that they share: _why_ is he in the Puzzle, and how long he has been there? Was he once a person - once an Egyptian king? Does he have a name and a daemon to call his own?

Yūgi passes through another doorway, following the hall in no particular direction. Candlelight dances around him, and for a moment, he is sure a shadow moves. Not as shadows do, but like an animal in the night, a predator wearing the dark like a draping, black cloak. Yūgi turns back to watch the doorway, inhaling a sharp breath. The fires jolt at the sound, but nothing appears.

“Yang?” Yūgi calls, hoping she will slink into sight.

“Yūgi?”

He whirls around to meet the Spirit of the Puzzle rising up the steps. The Spirit’s voice is hushed and his stride is soundless and sure, a ghost who has haunted these halls a thousand times before. Worry pinches at the edges of his expression, and the golden highlights of his hair seem to droop. He lifts a hand as though to lay it upon Yūgi’s shoulder, to whirl him around and push him out, but Yūgi’s startle stops him.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the Other Yūgi says, softer this time. He drops his hand to his side, chastised. “It’s not safe.”

Feeling a little guilty at jumping, Yūgi steps closer to the Spirit, hoping to convey reassurance. Something lurks in the shadows of this labyrinth, but it isn’t the Spirit of whom Yūgi is afraid. In fact, his presence calms Yūgi’s thundering heart, assuring him that whatever is here is something they can face together.

“What is this place?” Yūgi asks. “Is this a dream?”

“This is my mind as within the Millennium Puzzle,” the Spirit replies, regarding the winding corridors with a sigh. “I’m afraid there is little I can tell you about it. All of its secrets are even secret from me.”

“Is my mind like this?”

“I should hope not,” the Other Yūgi says, a little too sharply to be composed. His eyebrows pinch together, lips pressing flat. The violet of his eyes seems red in the candlelight. “These corridors are deep and full of dreams. It would be best not to wake them.”

Yūgi swallows. He doesn’t like to remember that the Spirit hasn’t always been a friend, but here in the depths and the dark, enclosed by the ever-spiralling walls of a tomb, the Spirit of the Puzzle can be as menacing as the room that contains him. But Yūgi refuses to be cowed; he has spent his childhood a coward, and it has been long enough. He and the Spirit are connected now, mind and body, and Yūgi has to be strong enough to support them both.

“I think I might have woken something,” Yūgi admits, hoping this isn’t the case. “I felt like I was being watched by something - something in the shadows. I’m sorry.”

The Spirit shakes his head. Now he does lay a hand upon Yūgi’s shoulder, calming and guiding him in one motion. “It’s all right, but we shouldn't linger. I can show you the way out.”

Yūgi allows himself to be led. It probably isn't all right, that he's woken something, but the Spirit of the Puzzle has been on his best behaviour since the final. Yūgi cannot recall much of the Spirit from before Duellist Kingdom, but the few memories he does have are fragmented and frightening. This Other Yūgi seems incapable of such malice - and yet there is _something_ in this labyrinth, something that stalks the shadows like a plague over the Nile.

Something other than the Spirit, and yet not wholly apart from the Spirit, either.

Yūgi rids himself of such thoughts. He is glad that the Spirit of the Puzzle has found him wandering here. He doesn't want to think about how lost he could have become.

“But the thing that was following me,” Yūgi asks, glancing back over his shoulder. The Other Yūgi stops beside him and squeezes his shoulder, reluctant to let go. “What _is_ it?”

The Spirit doesn't look back. “It’s just another dream.”

 

 

 

The Other Yūgi guides them through no small number of doors until they reach one that spills light into the labyrinth. Yūgi squints as they step through, but he trusts that the Spirit isn't leading him into danger. They step out into a narrow corridor that has no visible end. There are no lights and yet the light feels more natural, as though the sun shines from somewhere in the neverending hall. The faded markings and elaborate stone work of the Spirit's mind are nowhere to be seen.

“There’s another room!” Yūgi cries, pointing to the door on the opposite wall. It is the only other door to be found.

“Yes, that will be yours,” says the Spirit. And then, as an afterthought, he adds: “Yours and Yang’s. She is more a part of you than I am.”

Yūgi turns back to the doorway in which the Spirit stands, considering the rusted paintwork and the prominent Eye of Horus. Yūgi’s door has neither of those things, and is instead something more modern, just like the door to his bedroom at home. If this is the door to _his_ mind, then he wonders what will be inside. Will Yang be in there?

“We should put up signs - ones with our names on them,” Yūgi suggests. The Spirit's door will be all the more inviting with a name plack. “If it's possible to do that, I mean.”

The Spirit neither agrees or disagrees. “For what purpose? If you are referring to Shadi -”

“Shadi? What's he got to do with anything?”

“He holds the Millennium Key. It allows him to enter and manipulate the mind rooms of others.”

Now that the Spirits mentions it, Yūgi remembers the strange, golden ankh that Shadi had been carrying. His memories of meeting Shadi are fuzzy, though. He had spoke of things much larger than Yūgi and then vanished before explaining. The Spirit doesn't seem to hold any fondness for Shadi despite also possessing a Millennium Item, so Yūgi wonders if there was more to their encounter after all.

“No, I didn't mean that at all,” Yūgi says, hoping to alleviate the Spirit's concerns. “I just thought it would be nice, that's all. Then we could tell them apart.”

The doorways are stark in their differences already, but the Spirit is polite enough not to mention it.

“I'm afraid it would be little use. I do not know my name. It is one of the many secrets that the Millennium Puzzle keeps from me.”

“Well then! We'll have to give you a new name, at least for now. I don't know what I should be calling you.”

“The Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle is rather a mouthful.”

“So is Other Me.”

“I am averse to neither. Call me what you wish.”

“Yami, then.”

Yami smiles. “I am sensing a theme.”

Yūgi blushes, feeling rather foolish standing here in his pyjamas. He feels the need to defend himself despite the Spirit only teasing. “Yang named herself! And you can, too. It was just the first thing that came to my mind.”

“I am content with Yami. It will be acceptable until I remember my own name.”

“Have you forgotten your daemon’s name too?” Yūgi asks, only to realise with a moment of panic that he hasn't seen Yami's daemon at all. “Of course you must… _have_ a daemon, right? Or had one, I suppose. I'm sorry, I'm making a mess of this. Forget I said anything.”

Yami’s smile slips away. “I'm afraid I do not remember her.”

Now Yūgi _really_ feels like an idiot - and an insensitive one, too. “But you remember it's a girl?” he asks, trying to remedy the situation. Perhaps he should just duck into his mind room and pretend this never happened.

Yami inclines his head. “That is an assumption I've made based on Yang.”

“On Yang…?”

“I _am_ the Other You,” Yami reasons. “I would like to think that my daemon, if she existed, wouldn't be too dissimilar from yours.”

Yūgi's blush deepens. Hearing someone else, even Another of Himself, compliment Yang sends chills right down to his toes. People do not talk of others’ daemons, not even friends or parents and children. Daemons may exist in the world alongside humans, but they aren't governed by the same social rules.

“I apologise if I've made you uncomfortable,” Yami says. “Perhaps it would be wise for both of us to get some sleep?”

 _Do you even sleep?_ Yūgi doesn't ask. Instead he nods, frantically willing his face to cool down. “I think so,” he agrees. “And you didn't make me uncomfortable; I'm just... _glad_ you like Yang. I know she'd like you too.”

Yami’s blushing. Oh dear, now they're _both_ embarrassed. Yūgi should've just shut his stupid mouth.

“I - Goodnight, Yūgi.”

 _Thank you_ , Yami doesn't say.

Yūgi hears it anyway and smiles. “Goodnight.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment as you go :)
> 
> For the curious, Yugi's (and Yami's) daemons are caracals. In this fic, the ancient egyptians believed that daemons were the sheut - which is part of the "soul", so to speak. These were considered "shadows" and when a person died, the sheut represents the mark that this person has left on the world. These shadows, this sheut, follow the ba (the personality or life force) but are separate from the khat (the physical body). So, I figured when Atem died, his daemon also lost its physical manifestation i.e. it's body, but it still lived on as a shadow. So, yes, the shadow that Yugi sees in the Puzzle is what's left of Yami's daemon.
> 
> I did also plan out the main crew's daemons, but I don't have my notebook with me right now. If I remember, I'll come back and list them all next week :)
> 
> Edit: A daemon list as promised:
> 
> Yugi - caracal, female, Yang (chinese, "bright/sun/light")  
> Atem - caracal, female, Fenyang (egyptian, "conqueror")  
> Seto - albatross, female, Zahira (arabic, "shining/helper")  
> Joey - irish setter, female, Xiang (chinese, "soar/good luck")  
> Tea - rottweiler, male, Kano (japanese, "god of the waters")  
> Tristan - badger, female, Kohaku (japanese, "amber")  
> Bakura - african golden wolf, female, Azra (arabic, "virgin/helper")  
> Theif Bakura - african golden wolf, female, Azrael (hebrew, "help of god")  
> Solomon - emperor tamarin, female, Raja (arabic, "hope/anticipated one")  
> Marik - african wild dog, female, Masa (japanese, "become" / also from Massa which is hebrew meaning "burden")  
> Ishizu - short eared owl, male, Naeem (arabic, "benevolent")


End file.
